Reciprocating Bill
Posts: 4265
Joined: Oct. 2006
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| Quote (rhmc @ Aug. 09 2008,15:05) | how odd.
my worst car was a '91 taurus sedan.
tranny hosed at 62k. power train warranty was for 60k.
ford had almost the same response to my issue |
IIRC, the Taurus transmission (which already had problems) was redesigned for 1991 for increased computer control. That required a redesign of the valve body, with it's maze of little twisty passages, all alike. An error was made in the design of the gasket that sealed the valve body such that a portion of the gasket was exposed to the flowing hydraulics. The exposed portion eventually broke loose (after years of use) - with results that depended upon the location of the break and the pathway followed by the gasket fragments. Sometimes the tranny would refuse to shift and was retrievable. At others the already inadequate lubrication of the planetary gears was further impaired and the gears were shredded. (<- I know next to nothing about how these things work, so can't really say if this story makes any sense.)
What I do know is that my wife was driving on the highway a 3:30 in the morning with my then two small children and her elderly mother when this occurred. She pulled into a rest area and the transmission downshifted into zero gear as she pulled into a parking space. I'm assuming that the planetaries aren't involved when cruising at highway speed so she kept moving until that final stop.
Consumer Reports identified that Ford transmissions of that year were failing at 4x the rate of other auto-trannys of that year. Ford acknowledged the problem by extending the warranty on the transmission to 60,000 miles.
Which did squat for me.
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Myth: Something that never was true, and always will be.
"The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you."
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